


Calendar (달력)

by via_ostiense



Series: Tennis no Ojisama 45 [3]
Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-08-16
Updated: 2004-08-16
Packaged: 2017-10-17 01:01:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/171201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/via_ostiense/pseuds/via_ostiense
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Echizen’s racket, Echizen’s hat, and the difference between the two.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Calendar (달력)

Kaidoh notices lots of things. It’s one of the advantages of not babbling incessantly. Unlike Momoshiro, who’s constantly shouting or otherwise causing a ruckus. On his kinder days, Kaidoh thinks that Momoshiro’s personality must simply be too exuberant to be contained and so it overflows onto the people he shouts at or hugs, and the very air around him. The haze of energy is perhaps why Kaidoh can never see clearly when his rival is around. If Momoshiro is a much-hated blur in his sight, though, Echizen is a spot of pure clarity.

Echizen, at least, is restrained, if far too impudent towards his seniors, and draws everyone in his surroundings toward him. Unlike Momoshiro, who repels them with his too-loud voice and too-broad grin.

Because Kaidoh watches and waits silently, he notices that in 31 days, Momoshiro drags Echizen out for burgers on 27 school days and to street tennis courts on four Sundays. He sees a lot in his training runs around Tokyo.

Momoshiro is loud, Momoshiro is coarse, Momoshiro is rude, Momoshiro is blunt. He is an obvious rival, a scarecrow stuffed with straw, and Kaidoh hates him even as he acknowledges that Momoshiro neatly fills a category in his life.

Echizen is quiet, Echizen is insolent, and Echizen is a genius. He looks at his upperclassman Kaidoh with eyes that see straight through him and his Snake and his 10k training runs and his limits. Because his eyes mock what they find, it is Ryoma who pushes Kaidoh simply by sitting, by breathing, by looking away, far beyond what Momoshiro’s obvious jeering can. In the end, Kaidoh will play doubles with Momoshiro because the idiot is easy to see through and comprehend – a synchronicity born out of hatred and simplicity. But he will always play singles against Ryoma because the insolent brat is a real rival and he provokes a raging desire to exceed his limits. Limits reflected in those mocking eyes, and Kaidoh wants to burst Ryoma’s blasé indifference into surprise.

When Ryoma is blinded in one eye and heads back onto the court to defeat Ibu, it is Momoshiro who hands him his spare racket. After being asked. But it is Kaidoh who tosses the brat his hat, left forgotten on the bench.


End file.
